 should medical students be coming into work on holidays? Let's talk about it. Welcome everybody back to the channel. For those of you who are new around here, my name is Michael, aka Dr. Gelini, and I'm a board certified diagnostic and interventional radiologist. Now you probably know by the title of this video, we are going to be talking about medical students coming into work on holidays. And before I get into my thoughts on the matter, I wanted to get into what sparked this whole thing in the first place. And I know what you are probably thinking is, Michael, you are so far removed from medical school. Why do you even care, right? Well, I have a platform and there are a lot of things in medicine that need to change. And here I am trying to change it. It may work, it may not, but there's no harm in trying. Okay, seriously though, the thing that sparked my interest on this topic was a tweet by Brooke Theostomy, aka Brooke's goldish MD. Let me pop this up on the screen here. I'll read the tweet that sparked it all. I just saw a TikTok about an MS3 saying she had to come into the hospital on Thanksgiving Day. Are you kidding me? And for some reason, when I originally saw this tweet, I saw a little bit of red. Maybe it was the PTSD, who knows. But I vividly remember having to come into work on holidays for literally no reason, as a med student. But yeah, there were oftentimes where I wasn't even told that I had the holiday off until last minute when it was too late to make plans or even see my family or do anything on that holiday. It always seemed to be very disorganized around the holiday seasons as what the med students were supposed to do, were they supposed to go into the hospital, were they supposed to work, go into the office, or did everybody just have off? And basically what happened was it just depended on your situation, what rotation you're on and whatnot. Nothing was uniform about the holiday process for med students. So all that being said, I guess when I originally saw this tweet, it brought up some anger that I didn't know was there. And naturally, I had to make my own comment. And if you follow me on Twitter, which you should, you may have seen it. And I said, there is your reason for a med student to be in on Thanksgiving, period. I'm very passionate about that statement and I do not think that medical students should come into work on Thanksgiving. And by the way, I typed that tweet on my brand new iTunes F97 Variable X keyboard. Isn't it gorgeous, by the way? Look at this thing. Some mechanical keyboard, the keys are so smooth. I love typing on it. And if you wanna use the link to my description to get money off, you can save up to $40 until November 30th on the Black Friday sale. Again, link to my description. And shout out to iTunes for hooking me up with this awesome keyboard. Anyways, the point I'm trying to make here is that for someone who doesn't tweet at all like myself, I felt the need to tweet to get this statement out there. I honestly just kind of avoid Twitter because it's more or less a cesspool of just polarizing opinions. But sometimes I browse it because amidst all of the academic muscle flexing, there is some semblance of good medical information for fellow doctors out there. And this Twitter thread wasn't some huge thread that was seen throughout the medical community, but there were some comments in this thread that I felt the need to talk about because they are a little alarming in the reason why the medical culture is so toxic. And one of the most alarming tweets of all is this one to start. That's the reality of being a doctor in certain fields of medicine. I think it's reasonable for an MS3 to experience holiday shifts as it may be beneficial to them determining what field they choose. And this is the exact line of thinking in medicine that I strongly dislike. It's important that an MS3 experience a holiday shift because it may help them determine what field they wanna choose. Okay, let's break this down. I would say it's pretty widely known that a majority of specialties have to be in on holidays or at least cover call on holidays. Everybody in medicine knows that it's no secret. In fact, there are probably fewer fields that have off during the holidays than don't have off. Emergency medicine, yep, they're gonna be in the hospital seeing the sick patients. Hospitalists, yep, someone has to take care of the patients in the hospital. Radiology, yep. In fact, I'm working on call on Thanksgiving this year. Pathology and dermatology, hmm, probably not. But my point I'm trying to make here is you don't need to work the holiday as a med student to find out this information. All you have to do is Google or maybe browse Reddit for student doctor network or maybe ask someone in the field that interests you the most and they will give you the most reliable information. You don't actually have to be present as a med student on the holiday to be like, yep, here I am on a holiday. Now I know they have to work holidays. This isn't gonna work out for me. This just isn't a good argument for med students to comment on holidays. And as I go through some more of these comments, you'll notice that there is no good argument for med students to be on holidays. So let's look at another. I feel grouchy saying this, but if you view yourself as a contributing member of the team, you should show up and make the most of it. If you believe you are unnecessary and unhelpful for your patients and colleagues, fine, don't go, but you are approaching med school wrong. Oh, here we go. First of all, this has nothing to do with the way you are approaching medical school. Secondly, we can function entirely without med students. They are not relied upon to get work done. And if they are relied upon to get work done, something's not right with that organization. It means that the physicians or colleagues they are working with are just strutting them out and making them do a busy work for them or making them do work that the residents or attendings don't wanna do. And to make them do this on a holiday is even worse. Almost every specialty can function 100% without med students. Granted, I'm not an active dimmicks, but it doesn't matter for me if a med student is in or not. I do the same thing. In fact, I would argue that it's easier when they aren't there because I don't feel a need to teach them. I can actually crush through my work and get home on time. Sure, they may write notes in other specialties that a physician has to sign off on anyways, and maybe they change some dressings for some patients or run down to the supply closet to get certain supplies for a patient, but you don't need them to do this. As a resident or an attending, you can just do it yourself. If a med student isn't present, the hospital can function just fine. And I promise you, they'll be able to get through just one day of not having a med student. And I think what we often forget is that medical students are there to learn. They're not there to do busy work. And if they are such an integral part to the hospital staff and the hospital can't function without them, then pay them. I mean, after all, if they're needed so much, shouldn't you at least reward them and pay them for their time, for their incredible work? Let's look at another. Was on trauma surgery as an MS3 in November, I actually came in on Thanksgiving on my own for a shift, not assigned. Faculty who were also off came in and brought food and we all eat together, put me on the map with a PD or a program director and that had a significant impact on my career. See, this right here is the problem with medicine or one of the problems of medicine. This person came in when they didn't have to on Thanksgiving. And then they said it was a good decision because they got to mingle with the staff and even the program director who was in charge of the residency spots for the residency in question here. And without doing that, without gunning and coming in on a holiday and putting in extra time and work, they may have not had a successful career without this. First off, it may have been a good career move because they may have got to know the program director in which they may have not been able to otherwise. However, you shouldn't have to go in on a holiday to do so. Furthermore, the fact that other colleagues came in when they weren't working to have dinner or Thanksgiving feast at the hospital is also alarming. And this is why it's so challenging for med students to kind of walk that line of having some semblance of a personal life outside of medicine and also have a good professional life. And maybe those other physicians who came in to eat on Thanksgiving day in the hospital don't have such a good personal life and therefore they had to come into the hospital because that's all they know. Med students should use this time to spend with family and friends. Get the heck out of the hospital for a change. You have your whole life to live in the hospital. And maybe it worked out for this particular person but it's not a reason for med students to come in on holidays. You don't come in on a holiday in hopes that you may meet the program director and it may help advance your career. This is N equals one here. How about another? I agree they should have the day off. That said, on certain services, med students can get a lot hands-on experience on weekends and holidays when there's a skeleton crew. I kind of see where this patient is coming from but let's be honest here. Taking one holiday off will not hinder your experience or affect your life in any way. Like what? You missed one physical exam or you missed out on writing a few notes that day? I think you'll be okay and I think you'll get enough physical exam and note writing skills and residency. If she's an MS3, this is truly the first time she has ever had to miss Thanksgiving in her medical training career to date. Unfortunately, missing holidays and celebrations becomes the norm for this point on. So her first holiday without a family can be a hard pill to swallow. Yes, again, every med student knows that doctors were holidays just like chefs were holidays and many other industries also were holidays. Every med student knows that on a holiday, eventually as a doctor, they will miss out on hanging out with friends and family. But why start a med school? They are paying money to learn in school, not working for an employer. And onward to my favorite toxic tweet of all, doctors were holidays grow up. This just in med students aren't doctors and they also know that doctors were holidays. As we mentioned many times now, nothing helps prevent future burnout as a physician like having the med students come in early in their career and working a holiday. And finally, we have a glimmer of hope amongst the physician crowd on Twitter. Let's call it what it is. They're being used to write notes. This isn't about missing out on the educational opportunity. It's about the scut. They should not be expected to show up. That being said, the right rotation would have wanted me to come in and help. This goes with what I've been saying this entire time now. Med students aren't relied upon in the hospital or wherever they're working. They are used to do things that the residents, interns and attendings don't want to do. They are scutted out. If you don't know the definition of scut, I'll put it right here on the screen here because we've been talking about it quite a bit now. And my favorite tweet of all here that kind of sums up all of this. Not once has a doctor worked in a holiday have I ever had a thought, I wish MedStruil had forced me to get used to this. And that's a fact. The problem with medical training is that everybody lives in this universe where the harder you work, you're perceived as being a better doctor or a better fit for a program. Or the more time you spend in a hospital, the more aggressive and more awesome of a doctor you are. It's this kind of deeply ingrained medical culture that is the reason we have so much burnout in our career. This is what promotes burnout at a very young age. And yet everyone still wonders why physicians are so burnt out. And this is just one of many reasons obviously. I did this video to kind of highlight some of the stuff that med students have to go through during their medical training. And I felt like even the fact that Thanksgiving is right around the corner, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity. The reality though is that the toxic medical culture is way deeper than just working on holidays. It's also the fear of what your residents, colleagues and attendings will think of you if you don't come in on holidays. Are they going to think the less of you if you don't come in? Will they not offer you a spot at their residency program because you didn't come in on a holiday? Would that be perceived as being weak? Because after all, we all know that if you don't come in on a holiday, it means you're not a hard worker, right? The way med schools should handle this is send out mass emails or contact wherever the preceptors are for these med students and tell them that they are not to show up on holidays. That way, the preceptors won't think of these med students any differently because everybody is in the same boat. I know I'm getting repetitive here but it's hard to kind of put into words how I feel about this whole situation. Medical students are students and they are there to learn. The whole get used to it mentality because it's gonna happen to you in the future is the problem with the hierarchy in medicine. Coming in on holidays is not a learning experience. You will learn how to work on a holiday when you are paid to do so. However, given the current environment where a physician burnout and physician suicide is alarmingly high, we should be working on self-care in our life outside of the hospital and promoting a less toxic work hard and goals better physician kind of environment. At this point, why would we do anything to contribute to the negative aspect of medical training? As an attending physician, my goal is to make sure that the next generation does not experience the same toxic things that I experienced during my medical training. I want their time in medical training to be better than mine was. That should be the goal of everybody in my position. The whole, well, I did it so you have to do it, mentality and medicine has got to go. And it's up to the young docs like myself to ensure that the next generation of medical students and residents don't have to experience that same toxic culture that we had to. And trust me, the generation before me experienced it way worse than I did. But that's how it should be. It should always be getting better every generation. I sincerely hope the medical students now have a better experience in medical training than I did and they should definitely get holidays off. Everybody keeps saying that holidays are just another day which is true if you're getting paid. Students have their entire life to get paid to come in on holidays so what the heck is the point of coming in during medical school? I'm curious to know your all thoughts in the comments about this whole thing. If you had any experience when you were a med student had to come in or what your school is doing right now for you on your holidays. And I apologize if I haven't been a little passionate about this subject, but the whole reason I started this channel was to show that you can have a solid person of life outside of medicine and still be an amazing physician. This hits a little too close to home and I get a little heated on topics like this. Anyways, that's it for me. Make sure you follow me on Instagram and TikTok if you don't already. And as always, I'll see you all on the next video. Bye.